Information and Communications Technology Council

Lead and oversee large-scale research and policy initiatives related to Canada's digital economy, ensuring strategic alignment and impactful outcomes. | Extensive leadership experience in applied research, economic analysis, and policy development, with proven ability to manage multidisciplinary teams and complex projects. | ICTC is seeking a Director of Research and Policy to provide strategic, operational, and programmatic leadership across its national research and policy portfolio. The scope of this role spans the entire digital economy, including digital industries, the ICT sector, and the impacts of digital transformation and advanced and emerging technologies across all industries. The Director will oversee research and policy work related to digital skills, labour market intelligence, workforce transformation, and innovation ecosystems, ensuring ICTC's work remains rigorous, relevant, and nationally influential. The role will also contribute to ICTC's international research and policy agenda, including work on trade barriers and opportunities, foreign direct investment (FDI), and international economic and policy analysis related to Canada's digital economy and global competitiveness. The Director works in close collaboration with ICTC's economists, specialist researchers, evaluators, and subject matter experts, as well as the executive team, to ensure ICTC's research portfolio is rigorous, coherent, and impactful. This is a new senior leadership position on ICTC's executive team; success in this role is grounded in collaborative leadership, strong judgment, and the ability to synthesize diverse expertise across the organization. Key Responsibilities Leadership of Research and Policy Initiatives • Provide leadership for large-scale, multi-year, and multi-stakeholder research initiatives. • Lead multiple concurrent research and policy projects from conception through delivery, balancing priorities, timelines, and resources across a diverse portfolio. • Ensure effective coordination across interdisciplinary internal teams (economists, data scientists, policy researchers, evaluators) and external partners (government, industry, academia, and international collaborators). • Establish clear governance, decision-making, and delivery frameworks to manage complexity, mitigate risk, and ensure accountability across parallel workstreams. • Ensure all research initiatives remain tightly aligned with ICTC's strategic objectives, mandate, and growth vision. • Balance academic and methodological rigour with the need for timely, actionable, and policy-relevant insights that inform decision-making. • Exercise sound judgment and decisiveness in high-stakes research, policy, or funding contexts, including situations requiring trade-offs between scope, timelines, and impact. • Collaborate closely with economists, senior economists, specialist researchers, evaluators, and subject matter experts to integrate diverse perspectives and maintain high standards of analytical quality across the research portfolio. • Act as a strategic integrator of expertise across disciplines, ensuring that insights from across the organization inform research design, interpretation, and outputs. Analytical Oversight • Provide leadership and oversight for economic and labour market analysis underpinning ICTC's research and policy work, drawing on the expertise of specialist economists, data scientists, and researchers. • Guide the development, interpretation and application of economic indicators relevant to Canada's digital economy, innovation performance, productivity, and workforce dynamics. • Oversee econometric, forecasting, and quantitative research outputs, ensuring quality, relevance, and appropriate use of methods. • Translate economic and labour market insights into strategic guidance, policy recommendations, and narratives that resonate with policymakers and industry leaders. • Use economic evidence to inform organizational strategy, project design, and external engagement. Public Representation and External Engagement • Serve as a public representative and spokesperson for ICTC at conferences, industry events, government briefings, advisory councils, and media engagements. • Communicate complex research and policy insights clearly and persuasively to diverse audiences, including policymakers, industry executives, funders, and the general public. • Adapt messaging and tone to different audiences while ensuring consistency with ICTC's values, evidence base, and strategic priorities. • Prepare thoroughly for speaking engagements, ensuring messages reinforce ICTC's credibility, neutrality, and leadership. Research Insight and Thought Leadership • Provide thought leadership on the future of Canada's digital economy, workforce transformation, and emerging technologies. • Identify and analyze major technological, economic, and policy trends shaping Canada's competitiveness over the next decade. • Contribute to ICTC's thought leadership agenda through reports, briefings, opinion pieces, and strategic insights. • Help position ICTC as a nationally and internationally recognized authority on innovation, digital skills, and the future of work. • Advance compelling, evidence-based ideas that shape public discourse and inform policy debates. Stakeholder and Partner Engagement • Build and maintain trusted relationships with senior government officials, funders, industry leaders, academic partners, and civil society organizations. • Manage complex and sometimes competing stakeholder expectations with diplomacy, transparency, and professionalism. • Ensure funder and partner confidence through clear communication, high-quality deliverables, and consistent engagement. • Sustain relationships beyond individual projects to support long-term collaboration, influence, and impact. Business Development and Portfolio Support • Support ICTC's business development and fundraising efforts by identifying new opportunities aligned with strategic priorities. • Contribute leadership, subject-matter expertise, and strategic input to proposals, RFPs, EOIs, and funding applications. • Help expand ICTC's national and international research and policy portfolio through partnership-building and thought leadership. • Play an active role in shaping sustainable funding pipelines and revenue diversification strategies for the research and policy function. Team Leadership and Management • Lead and manage a multidisciplinary research and policy team of approximately 10 staff, alongside external consultants as required, fostering clarity, accountability, and shared purpose. • Set strategic direction and priorities for teams with diverse expertise and working styles. • Foster a collaborative team environment where expertise is respected, debate is constructive, and shared ownership of research quality and outcomes is encouraged. • Model a leadership style grounded in integrity, empathy, inclusion, and high performance. • Support professional growth through mentorship, feedback, and opportunities for development. • Address performance challenges constructively while maintaining trust and psychological safety. • Promote collaboration, well-being, and resilience during periods of change, growth, or heavy workload. Strategic Alignment, Performance, and Impact • Ensure ICTC's research and policy outputs achieve both policy impact and public visibility. • Align team objectives, workplans, and outputs with ICTC's mission, vision, and strategic goals. • Work closely with the executive team and cross-functional colleagues to align research priorities, communications, stakeholder engagement, and impact. • Oversee monitoring, evaluation, and learning practices to track outcomes, demonstrate impact, and inform continuous improvement. Travel and Flexibility • Travel regularly across Canada to support stakeholder engagement, partnerships, and representation. • Demonstrate flexibility and readiness to engage in national-level activities as required. Qualifications & Experience Education • Master's or PhD in Economics, Public Policy, Political Economy, Social Sciences, Data Science, or a related discipline. Experience • 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in applied research, labour market intelligence, economic analysis, public policy, or think tank environments. • Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary research teams and delivering complex, multi-year initiatives or portfolios. • Proven ability to deliver high-impact research that informs policy and decision-making. • Experience working with government funders and managing performance, reporting, and accountability requirements. • Experience supporting or leading business development and partnership growth. • Experience working in a consulting or professional services environment, including managing and delivering multiple concurrent client projects with competing timelines and stakeholder expectations, is considered an asset. Skills & Competencies • Strong strategic judgment and policy fluency, particularly in the context of Canada's digital economy and workforce. • Deep expertise in both quantitative and qualitative research methods, including forecasting and evaluation. • Ability to work confidently across disciplines, bridging economics, data science, policy analysis, and evaluation. • Demonstrated ability to synthesize insights from subject matter experts and translate complex analysis into clear, compelling narratives. • Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to convey complex ideas to diverse audiences. • Credibility and confidence to represent ICTC in national and international research, policy, and stakeholder settings. • High integrity, sound judgment, and commitment to ethical research practices. • Bilingualism (English/French) is a strong asset. What ICTC Offers • Competitive salary and benefits package. • A senior leadership role with national and international impact. • The opportunity to shape Canada's digital economy research and policy agenda. • A collaborative, mission-driven, and values-based work environment. • Flexible, remote-first work arrangements. Compensation Actual compensation is determined based on skills, experience, and role level. Total compensation: In addition to base salary, this role includes equity compensation. Are you? • An inspirational leader- Are you someone who motivates others, drives meaningful change, and navigates challenges with grace and resilience? • Driven and Determined - Are you highly motivated, self-starting, and willing to go above and beyond expectations with the drive to improve and exceed goals? • Optimism with a "can-do", results-driven orientation - Are you able to think creatively and successfully navigate barriers and obstacles? Do you stay focused on achieving priority goals and results? • Dynamic, resilient, and flexible -Are you able to keep up with and embrace the rapid pace of change, advances in technology, intense competition and unparalleled levels of uncertainty? Are you open to change, evolving requirements, continuous feedback, and have the capacity to work with remote teams across Canada? • A strategic, creative thinker - Are you skilled in analyzing complex situations and relationships? Are you able to channel your curiosity to navigate intricate challenges and drive innovation? Do you identify inter-relationships, patterns, and trends while noticing configurations across seemingly unrelated events? Do you synthesize information to pinpoint opportunities and issues? Do you tend to visualize new possibilities, challenge assumptions, and generate options to solve problems, seize opportunities? • Collaborative - Are you able to work with and through others to achieve results? Do you have the emotional intelligence to understand the needs and perspectives of others, share information, report back, and be a strong team player? • A decisive decision-maker - Are you able to analyze situations carefully, seek diverse perspectives, and make decisions that align with strategic goals and objectives? • Ethical - Can you work with and steward confidential information and data? (This role requires high integrity, good judgment, confidentiality, and ethical compliance) • Strategic thinker and doer - Are you an expert in developing and executing strategic plans? • An excellent communicator - Do you have outstanding interpersonal and communication skills? • Persuasive - Are you able to present concepts, ideas and proposals and close the deal? • Reliable - Do you demonstrate reliability, organizational skills, and accountability to meet and exceed project and funder deliverable requirements? • A champion of diversity and inclusion - Are you committed to diversity and inclusion and understanding the issues and challenges faced by diverse groups? • Passionately committed to lifelong learning - Do you stay abreast on industry trends, seek out new perspectives, and invest in your own personal and professional growth. Work Environment ICTC is an entrepreneurial organization committed to advancing Canada's competitive advantage in the digital economy. We are an agile not-for-profit with a dynamic environment where we are always managing multiple priorities and competing deadlines with excitement and enthusiasm, helping each other succeed, and lending a hand to help achieve collective goals. Location Remote-anywhere in Canada. About ICTC ICTC is a neutral, not-for-profit national centre of expertise with the mission of strengthening Canada's digital advantage in the global economy. For over 30 years we have delivered forward-looking research, practical policy advice, and capacity-building solutions for individuals and businesses. Our goal is to ensure that technology is utilized to drive economic growth and innovation, and that Canada's workforce remains competitive on a global scale. • OUR MISSION IS TO: Strengthen Canada's digital advantage in a global economy • OUR VISION IS TO: Foster globally competitive Canadian industries and a prosperous society empowered by innovative digital solutions. ICTC is committed to being an equal opportunity employer. If you require accommodation measures during any phase of the hiring process, please notify us as soon as possible. All information received in relation to accommodation requests will be kept confidential. ICTC respectfully acknowledges that ICTC headquarters is on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People.